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afrol News, 24 October - The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a loan of US$ 20 million to finance the Mopti region rural development support project in Mali. The Mopti project is a follow-up to the Mopti Region integrated rural development project carried out between 1986 and 1998 with financial assistance from the ADF and International Development Agency (IDA). The project's sector goal is to help enhance food security and reduce poverty in Mali, ADF reports. More specifically, the project seeks to diversify and increase agricultural production and promote income-generating activities. It expects extra output of 19.511 t/year of rice, 720 t/year of onion and 1200 t/year of millet and sorghum in 2007. The project will involve the improvement of the productive capacity of 179.5 ha of existing small irrigation schemes and 19 130 ha of damaged rice growing plots. It will also entail the development of 760 ha of new small irrigated and 1100 ha of medium schemes. The project will contribute to the reforestation of 225 ha of village land with a view to protecting the environment and the strengthening of 2.600 ha of stock-raising plots so as to limit conflicts between stockbreeders and farmers. It will also conduct functional literacy programs for the population and promotion of farmer organizations as well as the establishment of an agricultural credit fund to help increase agricultural production and promote income-generating activities for women and youths. Furthermore, the project will help to put in place basic social infrastructure (20 boreholes in villages without drinking water and 20 domestic latrines as an experiment) and build the operational and institutional capacity of the Mopti Rice Authority (ORM). The ADF loan will be used to finance all the foreign exchange costs and 55 % of the local currency expenses of the project whose total cost is estimated at US$ 23.21 million. Source: Based on ADF
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